


Middle Eight

by Argyle



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-20
Updated: 2011-06-20
Packaged: 2017-10-20 14:23:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/213705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Argyle/pseuds/Argyle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erik imagined there were recesses of himself he was able to hold back from Charles' touch. Places sharp and real.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Middle Eight

Sometimes, Erik recognized what he and Charles had for what it was: a fleeting thing. It didn't take much effort. He glimpsed it in snatches, like a paining at last seen in whole, some strides away, where before there were only dabbed colors, bright and marvelously distracting.

Erik was unaccustomed to having someone be so close.

At first, he was convinced Charles was merely pulling wool over his eyes. Trying to yank Erik off his orbit and end the vendetta. And Charles was, in a way.

But he also -- and it took Erik aback, really shook him to realize it -- wanted to help Erik.

Even before they started fucking, Charles was knee-deep in Erik's mired mind, the whole of Erik's past laid out before him like a stretch of untamed thicket. It wasn't as though Erik chose to let him in. That night in the water, Erik was so cold and angry, nearly drowning himself as Shaw's submarine escaped. The last thing he was prepared to do was defend himself from a telepath. Hell, but all that time, he'd really thought he was alone in this. Back in Charles' cabin, the two of them dripping and draped in blankets, he'd laughed and laughed, mad with the thought of it.

 _You're a mutant_ , Charles said but didn't say.

Erik had no opinion on it. _Mutant_. Before that, he'd simply been a freak, and the connotation of Charles' term was the same. To be different is to be alone. And yet...

Well. Maybe that wasn't so necessary after all.

It wasn't the first lie Erik had ever told himself, and if he regretted it later, he could always claim duress, a casualty of Charles' impossibly earnest, too-blue eyes, Charles' girlish mouth curled for all the world, a berry in a bowl of cream. Charles' ability, unseen.

It was only later that Erik understood the breadth of it. Charles _entered his mind_ like another man might stroll through a museum, taking in all the sights as though they were god-damned dinosaur bones, and of course it was all just Erik.

And Erik wasn't a good man. He never pretended to be.

For all that, Charles kept him closer, observing rather than judging. Would it were, thought Erik, one was guaranteed such a luxury. The fool likely planned it that way: Erik expected a knife where there was an open palm, and even he couldn't entirely shrug off the sentiment. Erik can't say what happened between them wasn't inevitable.

It wasn't that he trusted Charles. Yes, he allowed Charles to read him, Charles' fingertips to his temple and his thoughts expertly twining with Erik's. And during sex, Erik took on the risk inherit in baring his body, Charles' mouth so very hot on Erik's cock.

God help him, but when these two feats came together -- Charles' mind and body tuned in at once -- Erik was lost. He sensed the whole of Charles, a pebble at the lip of a canyon.

But Erik also imagined that there were recesses of himself he was able to hold back from Charles' touch. Places sharp and real. Words scratched in his guts, indecipherable.

Passingly, and just when he was buried deep in Charles, the other man's breath a fast, tangible thing on Erik's skin, Erik thought it would be good to give it all up. Charles smiled at him sometimes then, or afterwards, languorous and low, his hair thoroughly mussed about his still-flushed brow, and Erik felt this: _known_. It was unusual. Not unwelcome.

And yet brief.

"What are you thinking about?" Charles asked, like he had to.

"Time," Erik replied. Not _Shaw_ and _overcome_ and _power_.

"Mm." Charles closed his eyes. "Let it wait until morning."

"I can't sleep."

"You will."

After a while, Erik did.


End file.
